Summery

Running head: Teacher’s belief Teachers belief – Literature Review Everything is undergoes changes in the current world. Teaching methods and learning methods are also changing constantly and the teachers need to adapt to the changing trends in education to be more effective in their profession. For that, teachers need to change their beliefs and attitudes with respect to the current learning needs of the students.
The view of change in teaching practice focuses on the failure of teachers to adopt teaching activities, practices, and curricula that are suggested or mandated by those who are external to the setting in which the teaching is taking place: administrators, policy-makers, and staff developers. (Richardson) Most of the people believe that teachers are reluctant in implementing changes in their teaching strategies because they feel threatened, defensive, and perhaps rushed when somebody demands change in their methods. In fact teachers undertake change voluntarily, following their sense of what their students need and what is working. Voluntary change is what teachers actually do in their classrooms; it does not necessarily lead to exemplary teaching (Richardson)
The induction teacher’s and experienced teacher’s approach to the change management may be different. The induction teachers experienced more change in their beliefs than their practices, whereas experienced teachers demonstrated more change in their practices than their beliefs. (Luft, p. 531) The experienced teachers always have a strong belief in the traditional methods of teaching; but they were forced to change their practices because of the external pressure from the authorities. On the other hand, the induction teachers may not have much practical experiences and their beliefs also may not be adequate. So they will be more flexible as far as change in beliefs is concerned.
“ If all teachers make decisions autonomously, the schooling of an individual student could be quite incoherent and ineffective. This, too, suggests that help, direction, or encouragement provided to staff rather than to individuals could be necessary to promote change that is valuable to the learner” (Richardson) Beliefs are critical when it comes to understanding a teacher’s practice. For example, two mathematics teachers with similar knowledge may taught in different ways. Understanding of beliefs was more useful in predicting teachers’ classroom decisions (Luft & Roehrig p. 40) Institutions cannot behave like a market place where all the deals were based on competitions and bargaining. It should be functioned in a structured manner with a clear vision and mission. For that purpose, the teaching strategies must be unified and standardized irrespective of the individual beliefs of the teachers. “ Individuals can hold beliefs that are independent of one another and have a varied impact on actions or cognitive processes” (Luft & Roehrig p. 40) But these belief s should never interfere with the interests of others. Teachers are responsible for shaping the future generation. But they should never inject their beliefs and ideologies into the blood of students. For example, a teacher who believes in communist ideologies should never try to spread communism in the classroom. The students must be given the freedom of shaping their personality through natural selection.
In short, the teachers have the freedom of keeping their beliefs intact, but they should never try to inject their beliefs to students. Induction teachers undergo more changes in their beliefs than practices while the experienced teachers undergo more changes in their practices rather than beliefs when the change occurs or implemented.
References
1. Richardson, Virginia, How Teachers Change, FOCUS ON BASICS, Vol 2, Issue C Sept
98
2. Luft Julie A. Changing inquiry practices and beliefs: the impactof an inquiry-based
professional development programme on beginning and experienced secondary science teachers, INT. J. SCI. EDUC., 2001, VOL. 23, NO. 5, 517- 534
3. Luft Julie A. & Roehrig Gillian H., Capturing Science Teachers’ Epistemological
Beliefs: The Development of the Teacher Beliefs Interview, Electronic Journal of Science Education, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2007)